I can say that I am not Red John. I think we established
a few episodes back that there
are seven suspects. I think we're going to stick with that. My money is on choosing one
of those guys as being Red John. You never know.
Certainly that Red John story line will
be wrapped up this season. And that's no secret, we've been talking about that for a while.
I hope so. I think that was a nice little bit to end that particular episode.
Anytime that we can show a little bit of the other side of a character, it's fun for us to play
because it's not our normal procedural kind of experience, for the audience. Anytime that
we've delved into the personal life of the character, I think also allows for us to show
the different facets and my character has been very stoic and very
straightforward about
the way he goes about doing his business and it's only in those times can we understand that,
oh okay, there are facets of him that make him human. I hope those kinds of experiences
come up, you never know. It's up to the writers.
Actually when we started shooting the show,
I came up with a two-page bio for the character backstory and that kind of thing and I submitted
that to Bruno and he took some of that stuff and he dumped some of that stuff and whatever
worked within his already developed framework for the show, we kind of inserted. It was
nice to see that a lot of the stuff that I suggested, he kept. The character, on paper
when I first got it, was great because it was written for, as you mentioned, a Korean-American
actor to play a Korean-American part, but there were still certain stereotypical characteristics,
I should say, about the character that I thought we've kind of seen that.
It's a stereotype,
so we've seen that before. So I kind of try to do away with as many of those stereotypes
as I could and insert some of my own ideas into the character. Cho started out as a
family man. I think he had two kids. He was a bookworm. He was very awkward in social situations.
What else... That's kind of the crux of how the character was on paper when I saw it.
I took out a lot of that stuff. The background, his military background, his ability to handle
himself physically. I definitely wanted to keep the bookworm part of him. I thought that
was a very interesting aspect of his character, where he reads these great novels when he's
on a stakeout. Books that are this big. That's what he does. It just kind of lended a little
bit of flavor to the character that I thought was very interesting. That part stayed. He's
single. The family man thing kind of went out the window, but I think it was a nice combination
of a guy that can handle himself in a physical situation, in any sort of physical altercation.
On the flip side, he is that kind of nerdy bookworm kind of guy. There were certain aspects
of his socially awkwardness. It started socially awkward, but I like to term it
as he's very
to the point. He doesn't have time to deal with all the little trappings of society,
in terms of politeness. He's not being rude, per say, he's just being straightforward and
just trying to get straight to the point and get through all that stuff. So at time, it
comes off as awkward, or maybe even rude and those kinds of things, but that also lends
an insight into the character. It makes it fun and funny.
I hope so, because again, as
I said, it's those personal experiences, those personal situations that we find our characters
in where we can actually see different sides to characters. It's not just day-to-day cop
stuff or procedural stuff. I think that would be great. That would be a chance to, again,
show a different side of Cho and the one that we get to see most of the times. That's not
up to me, that's up to the writers and they haven't hinted one word.
That didn't happen
until later. I graduated from undergrad. I was working in finance at the time. As I was
walking to work one morning, I was passing by an acting school -- a very famous acting
school and they had a board out front that said "Beginning Acting Classes." Adult acting
classes. I decided why not? I went in there on my way to work, I signed up and started
a beginning acting class for people who just wanted to try it and never acted before. I
instantly fell in love with it and I remember going to work one day and on the trading floor,
I'm putting in orders to buy and sell stock and I remember going through my Othello monologue
in my head and I accidentally sold 500 shares of a stock as opposed to buying 500 shares
of a stock. At the end of the day, we had to reverse that whole transaction. Thankfully
everything was okay with that, but at that point I kind of realized my head was somewhere
else and this is where I want to go.
I am a big fan of 70's cinema, so De Niro, Al Pacino,
Marlon Brando. They showed something of themselves in their performances that
hasn't been touched
on since in my opinion. I always am striving to kind of reach the level of
being in touch
with their character as much as they were, whenever I try to do something. It's not an
easy task.
My favorite character would have to be Walter White. Just the transformation
that Bryan has been able to put that character through and himself through has
been a joy to watch. It's one of the best shows to come out in a long time.
I think villains are more interesting. They're fun to play and it's kind of fun to get in touch
with that side of yourself. I have yet to find, or play a role like that,
but I am looking forward to it.
I would have to style myself
as a survivor. Why am I a survivor, as opposed
to a zombie and dead? I would be a survivor because I like to prepare in those ways. I'm
not doomsday prep or anything like that, but I do like the idea of being self-sufficient
and that kind of goes into that survival mode as well. If you're self-sufficient, you don't
have to count on anybody and you can kind of make your way. That in and of itself says
survivor, right? Sure! Sure, absolutely. I would have to brush up on my Korean, but that
would be fantastic to do that. My favorites are again, those guys that can get in touch
with that side of them as like Choi Min-sik, Song Kang-ho,.I really love watching them
work. They always give a tour de force performance.
It's fun to watch them. It would be nice to
do something with them. It was an amazing experience. I was there a year.
My Korean got
really good because I'm using it everyday. I started dreaming in Korean so I thought,
it's starting to come back. Korean was my first language and that's how I communicated
until I was 5 or 6 and as soon as I started kindergarten or first grade, I started exclusively
speaking English in the home. Those few years of getting it in your head
stays with you.
That year it got really good. There was a point, I think month 6 or 7, I got into a
cab and the cab driver asked me, what part of Korea, or what part of Seoul were you born
in? I wasn't born here, I was born in the states. He said, "wow!" I guess my accent
was pretty good, the bareum (pronunciation) is good, but besides that, it was just great
to day in and day out be in that sort of environment, to be in Korea, to get in touch with my roots.
It was a really fantastic experience. I like to eat. Anything from soups to meats to fish
to soondaeguk (soup-like dish made with sundae), kimchijjigae (kimchi stew), all that stuff.
It's all delicious. Kalgooksoo. I haven't been in a long time and I would say,
back when I would go to karaoke a bit,
"Back in the USSR" by The Beatles, Stone Temple Pilots,
a song from Stone Temple Pilots. I am not going to be singing any of these right now.
When I went back (to Korea) after the first season, there was a small contingent. It was so funny.
I got off the airplane at Incheon and I guess my dad had...
I forget how exactly that happened,
but there were a few students, college students, there with signs and little presents and photos
that they wanted me to autograph. It was a really nice feeling. I remember when she was
handing me the photo for me to sign, her hand was shaking. I was kind of like,
"it's okay, I'm just Tim. It's fine." She was so nervous. It depends on which part of
the country I'm in. I was in Dallas, and I was landing over in Dallas for a couple of
hours and apparently people in Dallas all watch the show. I was taking pictures non-stop
and then I got to Knoxville, Tennessee and it was like tumbleweeds were going by. There was nobody.
As soon as the show, as soon as The Mentalist started taking off a little
bit, I saw the trajectory of the show an how well received it was.
I wanted to do something
to give back and started thinking what would be sort of my worst nightmare. I have a four
year old daughter and I thought what would happen in my life that would make it unbearable?
That would be the loss of my daughter. I asked my manager if we could start looking for a
charity, an organization or something that deals with kids. We found the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children and I met up with their, then CEO, Ernie Allen and we
started our relationship at that point. It's been about four years now. For our project,
our producing project, we had the filmmakers come in and
write us a short film script,
but in order to narrow it down and not get all these different kinds of scripts, we gave
them a subject to write about. I just thought kind of marrying those two themes would be
great so we had the filmmakers write about a missing or exploited child and that kind
of relates over to the charity that I am working with. We got some great entries and Jaeho
Chang was the winner of it. He proceeded to make a 15 minute short and it turned out fantastic.
Thank you for having me again.